Curator Tom Hardwick inspects a 2,500-year-old coffin going on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The white backgrounds and simple drawings are typical of mass produced coffins from the last thousand years of Pharaonic history. In the middle of the lid, the mummified dead person is shown lying on a lion-headed bier, his internal organs in canopic jars underneath him. less

Curator Tom Hardwick inspects a 2,500-year-old coffin going on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. The white backgrounds and simple drawings are typical of mass produced coffins from the last ... more

Photo: Houston Chronicle

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A head of a mummy, linen, pigment, gold leaf from 200 BC - 100 AD on exhibit in the Egyptian Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Mummies from the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods are sometimes elaborately wrapped and painted. Here, gold leaf has been applied to the dead person's face to show him or her basking in the life-giving rays of the sun. The dead person's up rolled eyes may reflect the Greek notion of 'apotheosis', looking upwards to acknowledge the presence of a deity. less

A head of a mummy, linen, pigment, gold leaf from 200 BC - 100 AD on exhibit in the Egyptian Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Mummies from the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods are sometimes ... more

Photo: Houston Chronicle

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Renee Stein, Conservator of Emory University, is preparing to set in place the Egyptian coffin that will be on exhibit in the Egyptian Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015.

Renee Stein, Conservator of Emory University, is preparing to set in place the Egyptian coffin that will be on exhibit in the Egyptian Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015.

Photo: Houston Chronicle

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Curator Tom Hardwick, Renee Stein, Conservator of Emory University, and Kate Brugioni, graduate student Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Art at New York University, set in place the coffin painted and plastered wood from Dynasty 27 or later 525-200 BC, is on exhibit in the Egyptian Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. less

Curator Tom Hardwick, Renee Stein, Conservator of Emory University, and Kate Brugioni, graduate student Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Art at New York University, set in place the coffin painted ... more

Photo: Houston Chronicle

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Renee Stein, Conservator of Emory University, and Kate Brugioni, graduate student from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Art at New York University, set in place the Egyptian coffin from the late period from the Dynasty 27 or later 525-200 BC, which will be on exhibit in the Egyptian Hall at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. less

Renee Stein, Conservator of Emory University, and Kate Brugioni, graduate student from the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Art at New York University, set in place the Egyptian coffin from the ... more

Photo: Houston Chronicle

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These coffins were buried in the sand, only to often be dug up later by tomb raiders. Their color has been preserved for thousands of years by the dry Egyptian climate.

These coffins were buried in the sand, only to often be dug up later by tomb raiders. Their color has been preserved for thousands of years by the dry Egyptian climate.

Photo: Houston Chronicle

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Originally people who dug up the coffins burned them for warmth, but eventually realized they could resell them to collectors for much more.

Originally people who dug up the coffins burned them for warmth, but eventually realized they could resell them to collectors for much more.

Photo: Houston Chronicle

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If you died in Egypt 2,500 years ago this is what your casket looked like

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Tom Hardwick is peering into the eyes of of 2,500-year-old coffin.

Although that may seem old, by Egyptian standards it’s not. When this coffin was buried in the desert the pyramids had already been built for 2,000 years.

In Pharaonic times people followed elaborate funereal rituals. The dead were wrapped both with linen, as well as spells and magical signs. Then they were put into coffins and buried. The coffins look pretty elaborate today, but it turns out they were pretty run of the mill back in the day.

Hardwick, a curator of the Hall of Ancient Egypt at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, showed off one of these coffins on Wednesday, a new item on display. The coffin is remarkable because even after two-plus millenia its colors are still vivid.

“This is the standard burial,” he said. “The painting is great. It’s very vivid, however it’s sort of right off the peg. You can imagine when you die your children go into a shop and pick one out. In some coffins you’ve got a line of text, and you’ve got a blank. So it really would have been your name here.”

Very well off people might have had a shaft tomb, but for the most part Egyptian coffins were buried in a hole in the ground. Many coffins, like this one, didn’t remain there for long. Tomb raiders would come along and dig up the coffins for gold buried to help ease the deceased’s passage into the after life.

“If burying people is the oldest profession in Egypt, digging them up and robbing the body is the second oldest profession,” Hardwick said.

This particular casket survived the fate of many dug up in ancient times, which were often burned for their wood. Eventually raiders realized they could be sold to collectors, which is how this one came to the western world.

Hawass in Egypt. (AP Photo)

This is a big week for Egyptology in Houston, as the museum is hosting a lecture on Saturday by Zahi Hawass, the famed and controversial antiquities expert from Egypt. His lecture is sold out, but overflow seating remains available.